The government on Thursday reported 54 new local cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), raising the total to 2,423 spread over 67 provinces, and two new deaths - a Thai man, 82, and a Frenchman, 74 - that increased the toll to 32.
Dr Taweesilp Visanuyothin, spokesman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, said the Frenchman had no chronic disease. He fell sick on March 27 with a fever, cough, exhaustion and abdominal pain.
He was treated at a hospital in Chon Buri province, diagnosed with pneumonia and later tested positive for Covid-19. On Tuesday he had trouble breathing and needed a ventilator. He died later the same day.
The dead Thai man fell sick on March 25 with a fever of 38.5°C and was treated at a hospital in Samut Prakan province. On March 30 he was exhausted, needed a ventilator and became unconscious. He died on Wednesday.
Dr Taweesilp said the 54 new cases included 22 people in close contact with previous patients, 11 of them in Bangkok.
Screenshot from http://covid19.ddc.moph.go.th/en
Other cases involved eight people working in crowded places or closely with foreigners and five quarantined people in Pattani province who had returned from Indonesia.
Others were four visitors to crowded places, four medical personnel, three returnees and two foreign visitors. Six other cases were under investigation.
Of the 54 new cases, Bangkok had the most at 21, followed by 11 in Pattani, three each in Chon Buri, Pathum Thani and Phuket, two in Yala, and one each in Chaiyaphum, Chiang Mai, Lampang, Nakhon Sawan, Narathiwat, Nonthaburi, Phatthalung, Phitsanulok, Samut Prakan and Trang. One case was being investigated.
The 2,423 accumulated cases included 1,242 in Bangkok, 161 in Phuket, 142 in Nonthaburi, 103 in Samut Prakan, 73 in Chon Buri, 70 in Yala, 66 in Pattani, 47 in Songkhla, 45 in Chiang Mai and 30 in Pathum Thani.
So far 80 medical personnel have been infected, or 3.4% of all local Covid-19 cases. Fifty of them contracted the disease at hospitals, 18 in communities and 12 were under investigation. They included 36 nurses and assistant nurses, and 16 doctors.